"The Miracle at Naples", by David Grimm

[alexxkay]

Beautiful young Flaminia wants to get laid. Francescina, her nurse, wants her to preserve her virginity. Then, the Commedia troupe arrives in town, and wackiness ensues.

While drawing on the Commedia traditions, this is not bound by them, and the play is not, itself, Commedia. It *is* a great deal of fun. Also, it is vulgar, crude, and there in no joke too cheap for it to descend to. No significant nudity, but lots of groping, and more vivid language and plot than you would see in an ICOD performance. To my mind, these are virtues :-) Certainly, I can't recall previously seeing a play that so celebrated the joys of sodomy as a recurring plot point.

There's an interesting if minor sub-theme about the traveling shows being pushed out of favor by the up-and-coming theaters, with their complex, scripted productions. Which is of course rather reflexive, as this show is in just such a theater, and now subject to the same sort of cultural shoving-to-the-sidelines itself.

Of particular interest to locals who are past fans of i Sebastiani: One of the female roles is played by Lucy DeVito, who is a dead ringer for buzybee/Joan Vacluse de Villaquemada. (Also, apparently, the offspring of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman.)

Ignore the poor-to-middling print reviews from uptight theater critics. This is a fun, funny play.

Comments

[jducoeur]

Hear, hear -- we went to it with a group, and had a fine time. Good play, which managed to surprise me several times. It's not commedia, but it's close enough to startle me occasionally, luring me in with commedia-based expectations and then going off in a different direction. Frankly, I suspect the average Carolingian would perceive the play rather differently from the typical person on the street, simply because we're so used to the commedia tropes.

(Really, my only problem was that they don't quite follow the I Seb rule against modern expressions, so every time someone would use one, I would have this strange internal dialog of, "You can't say that!"; "We're not at an event: shut up and deal.")

Hadn't associated Lucy DeVito with her father, but now that you mention it I can quite see it. Height aside, there's a certain manner than runs in the family...